Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 340 - 327: Future

Gu Ming spent the whole night tossing and turning, racking his brain.

In the end, he came up with a plan: make the act real!

First of all, Elder Yao’s Jade Token was from the future. In the present, it was practically impossible to find the person who existed on that future timeline.

Therefore, his only option was to have the Little Black Cat pretend to seek out a legendary Healing Element Beastmaster in the company’s medical department and receive treatment from them.

If it returned after being "treated," it would count as having been healed before Elder Yao’s visit was supposed to happen.

In this way, he could successfully "make the act real," deceive the system, and achieve his goal of getting the cat treated.

To achieve this, however, Gu Ming had many things he needed to test.

’For instance, to what extent does the Little Black Cat need to be deceived?’

’Does it have to keep its eyes shut the entire time, unable to open them even for a moment while receiving treatment?’

’Furthermore, I need to figure out how far I should accompany it.’

In truth, the method with the highest chance of success was to let the Little Black Cat go out and search on its own, relying on its intuition and whatever result the system confirmed.

As long as the result was accepted, the process itself didn’t matter. The system had its own way of correcting the "plot."

For example, before his Grouper Fish had matured, Gu Ming would often send it into the river to pan for "Spirit Stones."

Even if it only brought back a few ordinary pebbles, it didn’t matter. As long as the system declared that it had found Spirit Stones, the pebbles would transform into real Spirit Stones the moment they reached Gu Ming’s hands.

This was the practical application of "making the act real."

Gu Ming had plenty of experience with this.

This time, however, the operation was far more complex.

The little cat wasn’t searching for a mindless stone, but going to receive treatment from a living, intelligent Beastmaster.

This meant he didn’t just have to deceive the Little Black Cat, but also the Beastmaster who would be treating it.

But Gu Ming couldn’t possibly reveal the system’s secret to anyone.

So he had to take a gamble: deceive the Little Black Cat into believing there was a secret Sect hidden within the company.

A Pet Beast holding this Jade Token had an extremely small chance of finding a hidden door that led directly into that secret space.

During its search, it would have to be blindfolded.

It couldn’t see anyone, nor could it mention the Blood Jade Red Bone Marrow to anyone.

It had to present Elder Yao’s Jade Token and follow its heart to find the place of healing.

Only by doing all this would it have a chance to luckily arrive in the "future" created by the system’s displacement and find the Beastmaster who could cure the root of its illness.

Gu Ming spent the entire night by the Little Black Cat’s bed, telling it bedtime stories.

He told versions like "The Adventures of the Night Demon Cat," "The Growth Diary of the Sun Cat," and "The Mysterious Cat."

As he went on, even Gu Ming almost started to believe his own stories, to say nothing of the Little Black Cat.

The Little Black Cat kept murmuring the stories Gu Ming had told it about a lucky cat, and suddenly, it had an inspiration for its new name.

It meowed, saying:

It wanted to be a lucky cat.

"Master, what about this word?"

At its words, Gu Ming looked over. He saw the Little Black Cat pointing at a character on his phone. It meant "auspicious." For a moment, he was in a daze.

’An auspicious character... it represents good fortune and great luck.’

’With a name like that, maybe it really will bring it some good fortune.’

And so, Gu Ming and the Little Black Cat settled on a name.

"From now on, your name is Ah Ji. How does that sound?"

Ah Ji nodded happily. It finally had a name.

...

「The next morning.」

Gu Ming posted a message in the main company group chat:

"I’m starting Ah Ji’s training to become a Night Demon Cat today. It’ll be walking around blindfolded."

"If it bumps into anyone’s Pet Beasts, please be patient. I’ll be sure to make it up to you."

Lately, the various work teams had been playing dirty to secure training room slots.

Gu Ming was worried they might get too aggressive and not even spare a little One-star cat.

Fortunately, everyone still had some basic decency.

No matter how dirty they played, they wouldn’t go so far as to target a scrawny One-star cat.

A One-star Pet Beast’s body is very weak.

A Five-star Pet Beast could kill it with just the shockwave from a casual tail swing.

A little cat that wasn’t even a Night Demon Cat yet was beneath the notice of the regular employees.

Besides, killing a colleague’s Pet Beast wouldn’t halt their project; it would just cause a massive incident.

If they were found out, the consequences would be dire.

So, everyone in the company chat replied that it was no problem and told Gu Ming not to worry.

Some even commented that Gu Ming’s Ah Ji was very cool.

They just said it was too skinny and should come over to their place for some good food to get fattened up.

Gu Ming thanked them one by one.

As he finished thanking everyone, something felt a little off, so he closed the group chat.

"Go on, Ah Ji. Go find Elder Yao’s apothecary."

Gu Ming said, putting down his phone.

Ah Ji nodded. Blindfolded, it couldn’t see a thing, but its ears could still pick up the sounds of movement around it.

It clutched the "Lucky Jade Token" its master had given it and wandered around the company, listening for the token’s sound.

According to its master, the Jade Token contained the sound of Dao patterns.

Ordinary Pet Beasts couldn’t hear it. Only a truly lucky cat could hear that wondrous sound through the token, which would allow it to enter the Medicine Sect of the Hidden Sect and find the great enlightened master within.

After listening to stories all night, Ah Ji’s head was filled with tales of lucky cats.

Gu Ming had also encouraged it, saying that it was okay even if it couldn’t find the place; it could just treat the search as part of its Night Demon Cat training.

Because of this, Ah Ji was extremely diligent in its "training."

Over the next few days, volunteers recruited from outside would occasionally come to the company to train. Some used Nightfall, while others used different Skills.

Gu Ming didn’t have much time to look after Ah Ji, so for the first few attempts, he had Cyan Treasure or Ah Kun take turns watching over it to make sure it didn’t get lost.

Fortunately, the Array within the company was very effective, preventing any Pet Beast from leaving the floor on its own.

This kept Ah Ji wandering around Gu Ming’s floor for many days.

June quickly came to an end, and July arrived.

Gu Ming was busy teaching his other two pets their work duties, making them pull double duty.

Meanwhile, Ah Ji still hadn’t managed to find Elder Yao.

The system’s response was:

Ah Ji, holding Elder Yao’s token, seeks an audience with him. However, Elder Yao is busy with official matters. Each visit has failed to secure an appointment.

It was the same story every day: either the appointment failed or Elder Yao was away on business.

The hope in Gu Ming’s heart began to dwindle.

He was thinking of shelving the Jade Token plan.

He decided to have Ah Ji and Cyan Treasure study Relay Cultivation—one would cultivate the Light Element and the other the Dark Element—to get the Light and Dark Array in his villa up and running first.

He got off work at midnight on the evening of July 5th.

"By the way, where’s Ah Ji? It should be back by now."

Gu Ming glanced at the time and realized one of his Pet Beasts was missing.

Cyan Treasure and Ah Kun exchanged a glance and shook their heads.

They had been so busy with their Cultivation and work today that they had completely forgotten about Ah Ji.

It was the same with Lu You’s two pets; they had been too busy to keep an eye on the cat.

In a moment when no one was paying attention, Ah Ji had vanished.

Gu Ming subconsciously reached out through his Pet Beast Contract. He could feel the connection was extremely unstable; its presence was faint, flickering in and out of existence.

It felt as if Ah Ji were right in front of him, yet also a world away.

He had never felt anything like this before.

’Could it be?’